The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday said the government has proposed a three-year plan for sealing up a reactor at the controversial Fourth Nuclear Power Plant until a national referendum is held to decide whether fuel rods should be inserted into the power plant’s reactor.
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) has budgeted an initial cost of NT$1.2 billion (US$40 million) to NT$1.3 billion next year for sealing the No. 1 reactor of the power plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮), the ministry said.
“The ministry expects a national referendum on the power plant issue to be held in two to three years,” local cable TV network UBN quoted Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Woody Duh (杜紫軍) as saying. “If no such referendum is held in the next three years, then the ministry would then decide how to proceed to the next stage.”
On Wednesday, the ministry announced at a press conference that the power plant had passed a review of the 126 systems in the No. 1 reactor.
The checks were carried out by a special safety inspection team from April last year to July 25 this year, the ministry said.
At the press conference, Taipower chairman Hwang Jung-chiou (黃重球) said the total cost of sealing the No. 1 reactor from next year through 2017 would be less than NT$2 billion.
The ministry plans to deliver the plan to seal the reactor and a report on the safety checks to the Atomic Energy Council by the end of this month and the end of next month respectively.
The nuclear power plant is nearly completed, but the fuel rods have not been installed due to widespread public opposition to its use.
The ministry said all safety inspections would need to be conducted again if the public in the future decides to turn on the No. 1 reactor at the plant.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS